Garden 2014

We planted Cauliflower, brocoli and Cabbage on the far end of the rock garden. I planted it earlier than the corn because I knew it likes colder weather. We planted garlic all the way around it because I read on the Internet that it would help keep pest away. I have powdered it with a flour and baking powder mixture to keep the moths from laying eggs on it. We will see if this works to protect them from moth larvae infestation that we had last year.I just realized I was suppost to be using baking soda not baking powder.Ooopps!

We also planted cucumbers, carrots, spinach, roman lettuce, leafy lettuce, manegold, onions and shallots. I still have dill to plant. All of these are coming up but too small to see really good in this picture.

Sweden is saidto be having a bumper strawberry crop this year.

We planted 4 bell-peppers plants, 4 tomato plants and a lot of celery

in the small green house. We already have a few tomatoes on some of our plants.

The potato plants have just start popping up.

Our biggest problem has been unusually warm weather for the last 6-8 weeks with very little rain. Thankfully, it finally started raining this last week. Our rain barrels are full again.

Everything is looking amazing! So healthy and green, although I do appreciate what you say about it having been dry. I love your garden, I love the setting and the fact that I can watch it develop. I can also feel the hard work which goes into it and I know that it is a labour of love and one which you share together. I also know how you are fighting hard to supply yourselves with food for the Winter and how you practise all the old fashioned pickling and preserving techniques, as well as more modern ones to preserve your crops.
It is an honourable and admirable way of life and one which I also try to follow. It is very nice to know that you are there, endeavouring to live this life in the way that I try to live too.
Karen.

Thanks Karen,
We like you really enjoy growing our own food. We think it taste better. It is fresh and ripe when we pick and eat it. I normally find planting it enjoyable, but I have been sick off and on for 5-6 weeks. It made it very difficult to get it done.We plant a little everyday, which makes it do able. We enjoy watching it grow and see the fruits of our labour.
We enjoy trying new germinating and growing methods and see if we can improve our results. We have planted the strawberries, lettuces and spinage in a version of the french intensive method. We did not make it in a mound
because they are planted in a raised bed. We will see how it turns out.We are still trying to figure out how much of each vegtable, that we need to plant for us to last a year.
I would love to see pictures of your vegetable garden. I would like to have a tour of your garden. I know you have had your garden a lot longer than we have had ours. We are still novices compared to you. We are learning more and more every year.
I am trying to figure out when to plant cicely and the other seed. I find it all exciting to see if we succeed in a winter garden. Cross your fingers that we figure it out.
Have a great day!
Honey

Oh Honey, I am so glad that my comment reached you. I wrote it late last night and thought it had not posted!
I don’t know anything about the French planting that you speak of, well, I have heard of it, but that was from you! I like that the two of you invest creative thinking in your garden and put your ideas together to make things work. You are a good team!
Your ill health came just at the wrong time for the garden, but you have managed, which is amazing. I still have not planted everything out and here everything I do is being challenged by these terrible storms. On the moor at the moment the wind is perpetually stirring up in very powerful gusts, battering the garden as it build up to rain and sometimes thunder and lightening.
I know I have had my garden for a long time, but the location is so challenging that often much of what I achieve is lost. My Cauliflower have rocked so much in the ground that I worry that the roots are damaged.
As far as winter planting is concerned, I grow my best salads at that time. So much easier to grow so many salad crops in the greenhouse then because they do not go to seed. But I know that your temperatures are so much lower.

I watched the news this morning and they said France, Germany had been hit by a storm with Hurricane winds. That there was a lot of damage to property. I assume that was the storm that hit you.

We live on a small hill. We often have very strong winds here. We usually struggle to keep our corn up right. We brace it up the best we can. We don’t have fencing or a wall to block it. I have an idea of what you area talking about. The wind often sounds like a freight train about to plow through the house in the winter.

When the winds are that strong it is hard to put something strong enought to protect it. Hang in there. What I know of the moors in England is that the winds there would even be stronger than here because you don’t have as many trees to slow the winds down.

I just hope that we are spared your storm. Normally in the winter the winds blow our way. We usually get hit by them 3 days after it has left England. I was worried the storm was coming our way. Yes you are correct we normally have much lower temperatures than we are having now and the temperatures usually drop very cool in the night. We have had a reallyheat wave this spring. Right now it is 25 Celsius outside. We have a cool soft breeze. We have more day light than we have twilight now. We are approaching our summer soltice the 18 of this month. That is our longest day of the year. When the sun is up for so many hours a day, the heat has a bigger impact on everything. Most people don’t realize that. I hope these storm subside soon for you. Keep hanging in their.
Honey

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